Introduction
Because of the amount of recent Debbie Harry news, and the delay in completing Fan Mail #15 (in light of my recent trip to England for the tour, and the impending holidays), I've decided to do an Archive Report (especially for the benefit of all those recently writing from England). Expect FM15 to be dated December but completed in late January. The full tour report will be included in FM16. [blk]
Current News Summary
New Band: The current musicians working with Debbie and Chris are: Pete Min (guitar), James Murphy (drums), and Greta Brinkman (bass). Pete contributed on Debravation, James is a friend of his, and Greta (a friend of Chris's for eight years) was added late in rehearsals for the 15-show tour of England that ended 09 Dec 93. The set contained six Blondie songs (including "Faces" and "Go Through It"!), seven from Debravation, "Close Your Eyes" (unreleased 1989), "Lovelight", and an assortment of cover versions. Among these, "Love TKO", Iggy Pop's "Ballad of Cookie McBride", and the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" were the most spectacular.
H.R. Giger, the artist who designed the Alien monster and airbrushed the Koo Koo album cover, was in New York for his art exhibit, and attended Debbie's 5-song Halloween gig at The Tunnel.
Debbie played a nurse in the movie Body Bags (a John Carpenter film), broadcast on the Showtime pay- TV station on 08 Aug 93. The movie, which was filmed in Los Angeles, is a horror story in three parts. Debbie was in the second part for about five minutes.
The ABC-TV program In Concert, broadcast Friday and Saturday night 24-25 Sep 93 featured Debbie as host (recorded in Times Square). They showed two Billy Idol performances. A second episode, taped at the same time, was broadcast in early December, and had a short interview with Debbie.
The U.S. CD of Debravation, which was released 24 Aug 93, contains two additional tracks (both covers) as compared to the British one: Floyd Cramer's "Last Date" and Lee Andrews & the Hearts' "Tear Drops." The Canadian CD is identical to the U.S. one. Both versions have a 45 second delay before "Last Date" starts, which is a silent countdown prefix that Sire (Canada) said was requested by Debbie to isolate these tracks from the rest of the album because they aren't actually part of it. The lengths of these CDs are 59:20.
Billboard 21 Aug 93 indicates that recording Last Date was [Sire chairman] Seymour Stein's idea, and that the instrumental track was provided by R.E.M. (they didn't record it together). This was done around April 1993.
Blonde and Beyond, a 19-track Blondie compilation (70:18) with some album versions and the rest B-sides (formerly available only on 7"), live tracks, and unreleased material, was released in the U.S. and Canada by Chrysalis/ERG (F2 21990).
Wind In The Willows is available in the U.K. on compact disc (Dropout Records DOCD 1985).
"I Can See Clearly" was released as a 12" in both the U.K. and the U.S. (these are different). It was released in the U.S. as a 7-track CD single. "Strike Me Pink" was released as a picture disc in the U.K.
Both "I Can See Clearly" and "Strike Me Pink" were also released in the U.K. as CD singles in two parts. CD1 of "I Can See Clearly" contains the London Mix Edit of "In Love With Love" (first time on a CD). In addition to the CDs, a 12" single with four versions and a cassette single containing the version of "Standing In My Way" with Joey Ramone, were released.
Both three-track "Strike Me Pink" discs contain one song created for Debravation but left off the album. The first is called "On A Breath" and the other, an instrumental by Nino Rota, is "8« Rhumba".
"Strike Me Pink" has a video, but Chrysalis (U.K.) is not supporting it, so nobody is playing it.
Internal Affairs
Darren Smith, who handled all U.K. distribution of Fan Mail until recently, needs to scale back his involvement in the Debbie Harry Collector's Society. I'm therefore looking for someone to take over or supplement his responsibilities. If you're interested in this, or would like additional information, please write me in the U.S. immediately. [blk]
Darren also wants to know how much everyone paid for anything, no matter what it was. Fred Dellar (from N.M.E.) wants to do an article and include Fan Mail in it.
Enric Sole (P.O. Box 1102, 43080 Tarragona, Spain) would like to compile some information (for printing in a later issue) about the nature of Debbie Harry fans, and would like to know the following from anyone interested in writing him.
1. 10 Blondie or Debbie Harry songs she shouldn't miss to play live
2. #1, #2, #3... songs she should omit from her show
3. 5 cover versions you'd like to hear on her show
4. Who you'd like to see Deborah singing a duet with
5. Who'd make a good opening band for her
6. Name her songs she's never played live that you like to listen to.
7. Your opinion about Debbie's solo work and albums. How would you like
them to be: punk, dance-oriented, pop, etc.?
8. Your 5 favorite albums ever, excluding Blondie and Debbie.
New Printed Material
The Music Paper November 1993 has 2-page interview with Debbie. In it, she mentions Switch (a Sega video game in which the killer, a sorceress, is fashioned after her).
Paper magazine October 1993 contains one of the printed ads Debbie did for the Manhattan Brewing Company. There may be other ads and they may appear in other magazines late in 1993.
Raygun December 1993/January 1994 has a printed transcript of Debbie interviewing the group L7.
Forthcoming
A U.S. Debravation tour can be expected soon. It's not scheduled, but it's safe to say it won't be earlier than February, and more likely it will occur in the late spring or summer. It is fairly safe to predict that Debbie will perform with the same band as in the U.K.
Nik Nicholl, U.K. tour manager and co-operator of Red Eye, wants them to put out a new album as soon as possible (within six months), and to produce one at least every nine months from now on.
Debbie will perform (without the band) a New Year's gig in Boca Raton, Florida this year.
Collector's Information
Atomic Sounds, 26 Brunswick Road, Shoreham-By-Sea, Sussex BN43 5WB, England, is run by Tony Grist, who renamed the place in honor of Debbie and maintains stock of various interesting recordings. His store is a chart return shop so any sales of new Debbie material will register well if bought there. There are only about 300 stores whose business contributes in any way to the U.K. charts so regular or mail orders of the forthcoming singles from him will directly affect her ratings!
Tony was also stocking a reasonable number of the Australian CD singles "Summertime Blues" for 10 pounds. He should be able to obtain Blonde and Beyond for U.K. residents. I could also arrange to send copies directly from the U.S. for 13.50 pounds including air mail postage. [blk]
Vicious Sloth Collectables, GPO Box 2894 DD., Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia, can (or could) get the Australian CD single "Summertime Blues" for about US $20 per copy. This establishment usually has very interesting items but at very high prices.
Roberta Bayley sold me her collection of magazines and fan club materials, and originals to some of the artwork used in them. I will eventually make the excess available (along with the Domination tour merchandise) when I find time to organize it! [blk]
Anyone who would be interested in purchasing 1993 Debravation tour merchandise from England (T-shirts, tour programs, etc.) please let me know! They ran out and demand will determine if a limited production run is feasible. The shirts were black with the tour logo on the front and a gold-lettered list of the venues and dates on the back. The shirts would be $22 in the U.S. and 14 pounds in the U.K. There were also white shirts with an airbrushed face design that didn't look as much like Debbie as it probably should have, as well as long-sleeve T-shirts and sweat shirts (which were more expensive). Best guess at this time is only the most popular design would be manufactured. [blk]
That is all.
Respectfully submitted to the members of the D.H.C.S., and exclusively dedicated to the one and only Deborah Harry,
Barry L. Kramer
President
Debbie Harry Collector's Society